7 Stocks you need to know for Wednesday

PetSmart (PETM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) the recession-beater? Positive remarks about the pet store's ability to withstand a slowing economy encouraged traders to bid the stock higher by more than 6%.

Concerns about the effect of a slowing economy on aluminum demand led Credit Suisse to lower quarterly profit estimates for Alcoa (AA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). The stock was among the leaders to the downside in the Dow.

A Minnesota judge ruled that Wal-Mart (WMT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) violated state employment law with regard to overtime, breaks. The plantiffs were awarded more than $6 million in compensatory damages.

An analyst upgrade to "outperform" boosted shares of Celgene (CELG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) by more than 8% on Tuesday.

Starbucks (SBUX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced plans to close 600 "underperforming" stores between now and the middle of fiscal 2009.

Lower trading volumes were blamed by traders selling shares of CME Group (CME | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), which were down more than 6% on the day.

Better than expected June sales led traders to bid shares of General Motors (GM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) higher on Tuesday. GM June sales were down 8% rather than the 21%
analysts had expected.